Advocacy group moves to defend Washington's voter-approved girls' sports initiative against ACLU-backed suit

On Nov. 13, lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion in King County Superior Court asking that a group called Female Athletes United be allowed to join a lawsuit as a defendant. The suit challenges Washington's Initiative 638, the voter-approved measure restricting girls' school sports. The filing is a request for permission to take part. The court has not granted it.

I-638 would bar students who are biologically male from school athletic competitions designated for female students. It also requires anyone taking part in girls' competitions to provide verification of biological sex from a personal healthcare provider, as part of the sports physical process. The initiative is set to take effect Dec. 3.

The plaintiffs in the underlying suit include parents, TransFamilies and the Washington Education Association, and the suit is backed by the ACLU. They argue the measure violates the state constitution, including its privacy and equal-rights protections. In their view it excludes transgender girls and imposes sex-verification requirements on girls' sports that do not apply to boys' sports.

ADF attorney Hal Frampton told Fox News Digital the aim is for the court to let the group help the state defend the law so it takes effect Dec. 3, as voters asked. The motion argues the state cannot fully represent the athletes' interests, because Washington has previously defended transgender participation in girls' sports and might not press every argument the group wants heard. According to the motion, the state may defend the initiative as a permissible policy choice, while the group will argue that the U.S. Constitution, Title IX and its regulations require female-only teams, as do pre-existing state laws. Those are the organization's legal claims, which it asks the court to consider.

Attorney General Nick Brown announced on Nov. 12 that he had appointed an outside firm, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, to defend I-638 for the state. He said this would let the initiative be defended while his office continued its work protecting transgender rights. "My personal views do not dictate what laws get defended or the strength of that defense," he said. Asked whether he trusted Brown to defend the measure, Frampton said, "We trust female athletes to defend the law on behalf of the state of Washington." Asked whether ADF had contacted the attorney general's office, he said, "Not that I'm aware."

The motion cites declarations from five Female Athletes United members: Soleil Hoefer, Charlie Garrett, Sierra Retzlaff, Elise Bierer and Ahnaleigh Wilson. A separate declaration from board chair Kristine L. Brown describes the group as a coalition of prospective, current and former female athletes, coaches, family members and supporters, whose work includes legal advocacy and protecting athletes' privacy in locker rooms and other intimate spaces. She says the organization does not campaign in elections, though individual members advocated for or voted for I-638.

Hoefer, who joined Frampton for the interview, graduated from Prosser High School in 2025 and now attends Walla Walla Community College on a soccer scholarship. She said she was made to run against a boy at state track, and that her teammates had run against him the year before. Garrett, a Skyview High School runner, describes a September meet with a transgender runner from Camas High School. She says she later finished third at districts behind that athlete's second place, and eighth at regionals behind seventh place. She says she might run for a club instead of her school this spring if a court blocks the initiative, and Retzlaff, in a declaration dated Nov. 13, says the same.

Bierer, of Battle Ground High School, says she walked off the starting line at districts rather than race the Camas athlete, and that she was the only runner who did. She says she will not return to cross-country if she must keep racing biologically male athletes. Wilson, an Eastmont High School runner, says she traveled the state gathering signatures, and that a court block would make her two and a half years of advocacy feel wasted. Hoefer, Garrett, Retzlaff and Wilson also say they would be comfortable having their doctors verify their sex for eligibility.

The next step is the judge's ruling on whether Female Athletes United joins the defense, with the Dec. 3 effective date approaching.